Howard Wieman

Last updated
Howard Henry Wieman
Howard Wieman at CCAST.jpg
Born1942 (age 82–83)
Oregon, USA
Alma mater Oregon State University
University of Washington
Known for STAR detector, Time Projection Chamber, Active-pixel sensor
Family
Awards
Scientific career
Fields Physics, Nuclear Physics
Institutions Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL)
Helmholtz Centre for Heavy Ion Research (GSI)
University of Colorado
Doctoral advisor Isaac Halpern

Howard Henry Wieman is an experimental nuclear physicist specializing in instrumentation and detectors for high-energy nuclear physics. [1] [2] [3] [4]

In 2015, Wieman (LBNL) and Miklos Gyulassy (Columbia) were awarded the APS Tom W. Bonner Prize in Nuclear Physics. [5]

Wieman is best known for leading the team that designed the STAR [6] Time Projection Chamber (TPC) which was used to discover a new state of matter, the strongly interacting Quark-gluon plasma. The discovery was made at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) at Brookhaven National Laboratory. The STAR TPC was built in Berkeley, [7] installed at RHIC, and tested throughout 1998 and 1999. The first Gold-Gold collisions at RHIC were recorded with the TPC on June 12, 2000. [8] [9] [10] Seven months later, in January 2001, the STAR collaboration published the first measurement of elliptic flow in ultra-relativistic Gold-Gold collisions which indicated that the collision zone at RHIC energies is behaving hydrodynamically and with significant thermalization. This was a key step in making the discovery of a strongly interacting Quark Gluon Plasma, and a perfect liquid, [11] [12] [13] [14] which was announced in 2005 by all 4 RHIC detector collaborations. [15] [16] [17] [18]

Education and career

Wieman received his bachelor's degree from Oregon State University in 1966 and his doctorate in 1975 from the University of Washington. His doctoral advisor was Isaac Halpern. He was a post-doctoral fellow at the University of Colorado and then spent the bulk of his career as a Senior Scientist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. [3] [19] At times, he also worked for and in collaboration with the Gesellschaft für Schwerionenforschung (GSI, Darmstadt). He retired from LBNL in 2011 but remains active in research. [20]

At LBNL he was responsible for the design and installation of the Low Energy Beam Line at the Bevalac heavy ion accelerator and for the development of two generations of large Time Projection Chambers (TPCs). His first TPC was the EOS Time Projection Chamber at the Bevalac, [4] [21] which he co-led with Hans-Georg Ritter. Wieman then led the design and construction of a larger TPC for the STAR detector at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) at Brookhaven National Laboratory. He finished his career working with thin, high resolution, active pixel sensors. In particular, the Heavy Flavor Tracker (HFT) pixel detector for the STAR experiment was a ground-breaking device [22] It became operational in 2014 and was used to observe D mesons produced in heavy ion collisions. [23]

Wieman is a Fellow of the American Physical Society, [2] was awarded the LBNL J.M. Nitschke Technical Excellence Award in 1999, [3] and received the APS Tom W. Bonner Prize for Nuclear Physics [5] in 2015.

References

  1. 1 2 "Tom W. Bonner Prize in Nuclear Physics". APS Bonner Prize.
  2. 1 2 3 "Fellows of the American Physical Society (2001)". APS Fellows.
  3. 1 2 3 4 "J.M. Nitschke Technical Excellence Award". Berkeley Lab Currents. 19 November 1999. Retrieved 2023-01-26.
  4. 1 2 "National Archives photo of the EOS TPC". National Archives Catalog. General Records of the Department of Energy. Retrieved 29 November 2025.
  5. 1 2 "APS Bonner Prize". Bonner Prize Citations.
  6. ↑ "The STAR Detector". 25 Years Since First Collisons at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider. Retrieved 28 October 2025.
  7. ↑ "A STAR is Born". Berkeley Lab Currents. 14 July 2000. Retrieved 28 October 2025.
  8. ↑ "BNL Bulletin" (PDF). RHIC Begins World's Highest Energy Heavy-Ion Collsions. 16 June 2000. Retrieved 28 October 2025.
  9. ↑ "Berkeley Lab Science Beat". Quest for the Quark Gluon Plasma. 19 June 2000. Retrieved 28 October 2025.
  10. ↑ "CERN Courier". RHIC starts producing data. 21 September 2000. Retrieved 28 October 2025.
  11. ↑ "APS News". RHIC Detects Liquid State of Quark-Gluon Matter. April 2005. Retrieved 28 October 2025.
  12. ↑ Jacak, Barbara; Steinberg, Peter (1 May 2010). "Creating the Perfect Liquid in Heavy Ion Collisions". Physics Today . Retrieved 30 October 2025.
  13. ↑ "BNL Newsroom". RHIC Scientists Serve Up 'Perfect' Liquid. 5 May 2005. Retrieved 28 October 2025.
  14. ↑ "CERN Courier". RHIC groups serve up 'perfect' liquid. 18 April 2005. Retrieved 28 October 2025.
  15. ↑ Arsene, I.; et al. (8 August 2005). "Quark–gluon plasma and color glass condensate at RHIC? The perspective from the BRAHMS experiment". Nuclear Physics A. 757 (1–2): 1–27. arXiv: nucl-ex/0410020 . Bibcode:2005NuPhA.757....1A. doi:10.1016/j.nuclphysa.2005.02.130.
  16. ↑ Back, B.B.; et al. (8 August 2005). "The PHOBOS perspective on discoveries at RHIC". Nuclear Physics A. 757 (1–2): 28–101. arXiv: nucl-ex/0410022 . Bibcode:2005NuPhA.757...28B. doi:10.1016/j.nuclphysa.2005.03.084.
  17. ↑ Adams, J.; et al. (8 August 2005). "Experimental and theoretical challenges in the search for the quark–gluon plasma: The STAR Collaboration's critical assessment of the evidence from RHIC collisions". Nuclear Physics A. 757 (1–2): 102–183. arXiv: nucl-ex/0501009 . Bibcode:2005NuPhA.757..102A. doi:10.1016/j.nuclphysa.2005.03.085.
  18. ↑ Adcox, K.; et al. (8 August 2005). "Formation of dense partonic matter in relativistic nucleus–nucleus collisions at RHIC: Experimental evaluation by the PHENIX Collaboration". Nuclear Physics A. 757 (1–2): 184–287. arXiv: nucl-ex/0410003 . Bibcode:2005NuPhA.757..184A. doi:10.1016/j.nuclphysa.2005.03.086.
  19. ↑ "Heavy Flavor Tracker for STAR". LBL Newsroom. 18 February 2014. Retrieved 30 October 2025.
  20. ↑ "Inspire HEP exactauthor:H.Wieman.1" . Retrieved 11 November 2025.
  21. ↑ "The time projection chamber turns 25". 27 January 2004.
  22. ↑ "Heavy Flavor Tracker for STAR". BNL Newsroom. 19 February 2014. Retrieved 30 October 2025.
  23. ↑ Roberts Jr, Glenn (30 May 2017). "Heavy Particles Get Caught Up in the Flow" . Retrieved 26 January 2023.
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